


Teacher's Pet

by swingandswirl



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Alternate Universe, Geeky!Colby, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 05:11:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10937685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swingandswirl/pseuds/swingandswirl
Summary: AU. Charlie has a hard time keeping his thoughts off his new grad student Colby...





	Teacher's Pet

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the numb3rsficathon Reversathon challenge. Many thanks to mustangcandi and aspire_amita for their help.
> 
> Spoilers for 4.15 End Game.

 

"Here you go, Professor," Colby said. "Data on those Bay area crime stats you wanted. Don dropped them off while you were at that meeting with Professor Glazer."

"Thanks, Colby," Charlie replied, reaching across to take the CD and ignoring the jolt that rushed through him at the brief touch of Colby's hand on his.

"Need any help on those, Doc?" Colby asked, gesturing to the row of equations on the board.

"No, it's just some old stuff Don has me looking through. And if you've got enough free time to offer to help me with brute force data mining then I'm failing in my duties as your thesis advisor and evil overlord."

Colby laughed, then grimaced. "More like I'm putting off checking the quizzes from my Combinatorics 101 class. You'd think these guys had never seen a computer from the way they code..."

"Freshmen," Charlie said, in much the same tone he used for "Lakers fans," or "Marshall Penfield," and was rewarded with another chuckle from Colby.

They settled down to their work then, Charlie working on some old cases for Don, Colby grading his students' essays. Occasionally, Charlie would ask Colby a question or his opinion, or Colby would read him an amusing snippet from his students' answer booklets, but mostly they just spent the time in companionable silence.

Charlie typed in the final set of numbers with a flourish before sending it off to process. As the computer chugged its way through the data, he sneaked a quick peek at Colby. His student looked adorable, sprawled in his chair, absentmindedly chewing on his pencil as he went through the papers.

Charlie smiled at the picture he made. Who would have thought that a soldier boy like Colby would fit in so well here? His thoughts went back two years, to the staff meeting that had begun it all.

Since the California Institute of Science prided itself on being more extended family than academic institution, much thought went into the selection of new students, especially at the graduate level. No one was welcomed to study here without having first gone through a rigorous selection process, involving faculty members from several different departments.

And it was at there that Charlie had first met Colby Granger.

At first, the younger man had seemed an unlikely candidate for admission; he was fresh from Afghanistan, where he had kicked down doors with the elite Ranger Battalion, and a look at his college transcripts revealed that wrestling and football, not academic merit, had paid for his four years at Texas A&M. In sum, he had seemed far more suited to the academic extensions of Fort Benning than the ivory towers of CalSci.

But then Charlie dug a little deeper, and he found that the football trophies and wrestling medals were joined by stellar grades and a published paper or three, that one of the medals Granger's dossier fairly jangled with was an Army Commendation Medal for "significantly improving the offensive capacity of our troops while pioneering measures to safeguard the lives of troops in combat zones."

Which, translated, meant that Lt. Granger was one hell of a programmer.

He was a fair writer, too, his clear, earnest prose charming Charlie, his desire for knowledge and his enthusiasm for learning evident in his essays.

Apparently many of the other professors felt the same, because it was decided, by a far larger vote than Charlie had expected; Colby Granger was coming to CalSci.

 

*************

 

Colby walked up the steps to the Bauer building, taking a deep breath as he entered the building that was to become his second home for the next few years. He still couldn't believe he'd made it to the California Institute of Science, one of the best colleges in the country. Wherever his Dad was, he must be smiling.

James Granger had always lectured his sons about the value of an education. You could lose your home, your family, your reputation... but nothing could take your learning from you. And so Colby had studied, between chores and late into the night, when other kids were out at parties and skinny-dipping and cow-tipping and whatever else one did for entertainment in a town as small as Winchester. Not that Colby neglected the athletic side of him- as his Dad constantly reminded him, a well-rounded applicant stood a better chance of getting into a good school.

When his Dad had died in that freak accident/suicide/whatever-the-hell-it-was, Colby had had two options with regards to how he was going to deal- he could either turn into an emotional wreck like his Mama, or run off to the other side of the world and avoid dealing like his brother Jimmy.

Colby did neither, instead throwing himself into books and football and wrestling with a vengeance, determined to fulfill his Dad's most cherished wish. Five years later, he'd done it, graduated summa cum laude with a double degree in computer science and mathematics from Texas A&M, his pick of grad school open to him.

For a while, Colby seriously considered extending his stay in the ivory tower by a few more years, but some things ran deeper in him than a thirst for knowledge, and he ended up settling for Ranger School and a master's degree in computer science from Fort Benning's extension centre. When he came out of his thesis defence to find his country under attack, he found himself suddenly glad for five generations of duty and honour.

Afghanistan was a clusterfuck in more ways than Colby really cared to remember, culminating in the Humvee attack that killed Dwayne Carter and ended his time in the Army. His shoulder would heal, the doctors told him; not enough to lead his Rangers into battle ever again, but enough for a desk job in Military Intelligence.

If Colby had wanted to be a spook he'd have joined up somewhere else in the first place, so he took his medical discharge, brushed off his textbooks, and set about applying to CalSci.

And here he was, on his way to his first class with... Colby glanced at his schedule. Applied Mathematics, with Professor Charles Eppes. Colby smiled, feeling a frisson of excitement run through him. He'd read some of Eppes' work, not that he'd understood half of it, and he was psyched to able to work with one of the best minds in mathematics. Entering the lecture hall, Colby snagged a seat near the front, smiling at some of the giggle-laced whispers about Eppes that reached his ears. Well, I guess some things never change...

A new arrival caught his attention. The guy was slender, on the shorter side, with big brown eyes and curly hair that just begged to be played with. Colby licked his lips unconsciously, attempting to quash the rush of desire. He was an officer, it wouldn't do... except he wasn't in the Army now. Colby grinned to himself. Maybe he'd try and catch up with the cute guy after class, try for his number. After all, wasn't half the point of coming to LA expanding his horizons?

Instead of making his way to a seat, Cute Guy stepped up to the podium. After a quick mic check, he cleared his throat and spoke. "Good morning, everyone. My name is Professor Charles Eppes, and I'm your professor for Applied Mathematics this semester."

Well, shit.

 

*************

 

He caught Charlie's attention the moment his eyes landed on him; even without checking the register, he knew that this must be Lt. Granger. Tall and blond, muscles straining against his button-down shirt, his classic good looks and military bearing set him apart from all the other students at CalSci. While many of the other professors dismissed him as nothing more than a pretty-boy G.I., Charlie saw something in the man's bright green eyes that intrigued him.

Charlie's suspicions were borne out by Granger's work. It was nothing short of brilliant, the younger man often hitting upon simpler, more efficient ways to solve equations and write code than the textbook prescribed. When Charlie asked him about it, Colby simply shrugged and said, "Don't really have much time to spare in combat, Professor. The more shortcuts you find, the better the chances of someone not coming home in a body bag."

It was a point of view Charlie could appreciate, even as Professor Sugiyama, one of Charlie's colleagues and the man Colby was assigned to assist, threatened to burst a blood vessel over Colby's refusal to do things the long way around. For the sake of his health and everyone's sanity, Charlie offered him a trade: one of his TAs for Colby. Sugiyama readily agreed, so Charlie cleaned out the small desk by the window of his office for Colby.

It had been a gamble, one that paid off spectacularly; Colby was efficient, hard-working, and most important, extremely well organized, often reminding Charlie of places he had to be and appointments he was supposed to keep, in addition to keeping him plied with coffee and takeaway and wry quips when Charlie was feeling down.

Yup, he'd netted himself a real prize of a TA. The fact that Colby was sweet and kind and funny and tended to wear clothes that showed off his broad shoulders and pert ass was just an added bonus.

 

*****************

 

The thing about being Professor Eppes' TA was that he was also part secretary, part mother hen. Colby kept Charlie's office in order (mostly so he could find stuff when he needed it), ensured a pot of Charlie's favourite coffee was always available (because no-one needed to deal with a decaffeinated Professor Eppes any more than necessary), and made sure that he took breaks to eat and drink (because really, that one time walking into the office to find Charlie passed out at his desk from sheer exhaustion had been more than enough for everyone.)

Not that Colby minded; Professor Eppes had been kind enough to lend him a desk in his office, and reshuffling a few papers was more than a fair trade for the easy access to his mentor. Plus, whenever Colby showed up with pizza or falafel or tandoori chicken, Charlie was usually game for a break, the two of them discussing math and crime and anything else under the sun over good food and freshly-brewed coffee.

As for the little voice in his head that kept pointing out that their leisurely, relaxed meals felt suspiciously like dates, Colby ignored it. Just like he ignored the voice that pointed out that Charlie was young, single, and extremely cute when he babbled math. And the voice that wondered how those curls of his would feel in Colby's hands, how they'd look spread across Colby's sheets while he fucked the Professor.

He was going to have a hard enough time getting into DARPA without rumours floating around that he was hot for teacher.

Especially since they weren't rumours.

 

************

 

"You're working with Ian Edgerton? The Ian Edgerton?" Colby's voice registered shock and not a little awe, setting Charlie even further on edge.

"Yeah, so?" he snapped.

"Professor... Edgerton's a legend. Man was in Afghanistan same time I was, except you never saw him, just his work. My CO once called him the bastard son of Clint Eastwood and Yoda."

Charlie's lips twitched. Much as he disliked Edgerton, he could see where one might come up with that expression. "Tell you what, I'll get you an autograph. Assuming I don't kill him first..."

"He does have a point, Doc," Colby said, and Charlie shot him a wounded look. Even his own student was running over to the dark side... "Your gunman is still a human being, and human beings can't be completely quantified. Even by a genius like you."

Charlie scowled, not mollified by the compliment. "It's still just math, Colby."

Colby's chuckle was wry. "You know, I had one of the best scores, pistol and rifle, at the range in Benning. When we went to Afghanistan and I had to shoot at real people instead of paper targets... well, let's just say I had to do a lot of re-learning, and quick. There are some things only experience can teach you."

Clapping a hand to his shoulder in goodbye, Colby left for a class, leaving a thoughtful Charlie behind. Once Colby's footsteps had faded into nothing, Charlie reached for his phone.

He had a shooting lesson to schedule.

 

************

 

In the two years they'd worked together, Charlie had seen Colby in many states of mind- consumed with passion as his fingers flew over the keyboard, new equations spilling out as fast as he could type them, laughing at a particularly funny answer in one of his students' papers, filled with righteous fury at the bastards who'd kidnapped little girls to sell them to the highest bidder, calm and collected as he soothed a frantic classmate, tired and snappy as his thesis deadline crept up on him.

This, however, was new.

"I can't do this, Professor," Colby said. "I'm just a dumb jock with a knack for computers, and god, what the fuck was I thinking coming here?"

Shit. Five minutes before his thesis defence and Colby was starting to panic. Not good. Charlie took his hands in both of his, knowing that physical contact helped people calm down faster.

"Colby," he said, kneeling down so he was at his student's eye level, "You are not a dumb jock. I think the papers you've published and the cases you've helped me and Don with have proven that, not to mention the way your students rave about you."

Colby still had that frantic look in his eyes, but at least his hands had stopped shaking.

"You know," Charlie said, "I was part of the committee that oversaw your admission. Hell, I was one of the people who fought for it, for you. And you have repaid my faith a hundredfold since then. Colby... I am proud to call you my student and my friend, and I know you'll achieve great things. This is only the beginning."

Colby finally looked up at him. "Really?"

Charlie squeezed his hands. "Really."

They stayed like that for a little while, until Colby's breathing returned to normal and he let out a soft, "Thanks, Professor."

Charlie realized with a start that Colby's hands were still in his. He quickly let them go and stood up.

"Don't mention it. Now come on, Granger. Time to blow those stuffed-up old ivory tower relics out of the water."

Colby grinned, full and true, and for a second the whole universe shuddered to a halt.

"Bring it on."

 

************

 

Charlie handed Colby the envelope. It was made of a heavy cream paper, CalSci's insignia on the top left corner, his name calligraphed in the centre.

"Judgement Day," Colby said. He couldn't stop the slight tremor that ran through him.

"Stop being so negative," Charlie chided him. "Open it."

Colby took a deep breath. He slit the envelope open with his Swiss Army knife and pulled out the single sheet of paper within. He read it once, quickly, before wordlessly handing it over to Charlie.

Charlie let his eyes wander down the page, finally finding what he was looking for.

"Well," he said, face breaking into a grin, "Congratulations, Dr. Granger."

At that, Colby grinned too, then burst into laughter, half in relief, half in joy.

He pulled Charlie into a hug, and for a moment, Charlie put down his guard, let himself melt into his solid warmth, feel the strength in the arms holding him close, take in the combination of clean sweat and spices that was uniquely Colby.

If this was all he was ever going to have of the beautiful, brilliant man who'd stormed into his life and stolen his heart, then by God and the math he was going to enjoy it.

 

************

 

A flurry of cases and seminars meant that Charlie didn't see Colby until almost two weeks later, when the younger man stopped by to pick up the last of his things from his workspace in Charlie's office.

Charlie perched on his table and watched as Colby packed his things, once again marveling at the graceful economy of his movements, the clean straight lines of his face, the strength of his hands.

A knock on the door startled them both.

"Come in!" Charlie called. He smiled at the newcomer. "Oh, hey, Amita. Colby, this is Amita Ramanujan, she works with Don. Amita, Colby Granger, an old student of mine and one of the best I've worked with."

Colby didn't even seem to hear him, too caught up at staring at Amita, and Charlie fought down a surge of jealously. He's not yours, Eppes. Move on.

"Well, I'll be," Colby said, surprised pleasure in his voice. "Lt. Ramanujan?"

"Actually, it's Agent Ramanujan now," Amita explained, smiling. "Like Charlie said, I work with Don. Just flew in from Quantico last week. So you were Charlie's student?"

"Yeah," Colby replied. "Just finished getting my Ph.D. in combinatorics. The Professor here was my thesis advisor."

"A doctorate? Wow," Amita marveled. "I always knew you were a geek at heart. And working with Charlie Eppes... you're going places, Whiz Kid."

"Whiz Kid?" Charlie asked, even as Colby's cheeks heated. Pink suited him well for such a feminine colour, Charlie noted absently.

"One of the sergeants at OCS- officer candidate school- his wife, she worked at Ars Mathematica. She happened to edit an issue which had a paper of mine in it, showed it to him when she recognized the name. I was already the youngest in my class, so... Whiz Kid," Colby explained.

"You two served together?" Charlie asked.

"In Afghanistan, yeah. She was in Military Intelligence, I was in the Rangers. We were both part of the base's volunteer programme, that's how we know each other."

"And as much as I'd like to sit and reminisce some more.. this case isn't going to wait," Amita said ruefully, indicating the pile of folders she had with her.

Charlie and Colby both sat up as Amita told them about the series of murders that seemed to have no discernible pattern or connection, but had all happened within the same geographical area. Within a few minutes of looking at the data, Charlie already had an idea for where to start.

"This is going to take an hour or so," he said. "Would you like to wait, or..."

"Actually, I was hoping I could steal Colby away for a bit," Amita said. "We've got a lot to catch up on."

"Well... I was thinking that I'd stick around, help Charlie with these equations. Things like this often go faster with two. How about a rain check?"

"OK." Amita's voice was casual, but even Charlie could see the hint of disappointment in her eyes. "I'm going to go for a walk around campus. Seems a shame to waste a beautiful morning like this one."

Charlie waited until Amita was safely out of earshot before looking askance at Colby.

"What was that about?"

"What was what about?" Colby replied, sounding confused.

"You turned her down to do math?"

"Says the guy who insists, forcefully and at length, that numbers are everything. Besides, she's not my type."

"Smart, funny and hot isn't? Then what is?" Charlie asked.

Colby shrugged. "Smart, funny, hot... and male."

Charlie blinked. "Oh."

"Professor? Charlie? You don't... I mean, we're cool, right?" Colby's voice was a little hesitant, and Charlie kicked himself for not realizing how hard this must be for him- despite everything, Colby was still a small-town boy, and ex-Army to boot.

"Of course we are," he said. "It's just... you surprised me. You don't seem the type, and I assumed..."

Colby grinned. "Well, you know what assuming makes you and me, Doc. Now, those equations won't solve themselves, so how about we get to work?"

Between the two of them, it took just under half an hour to come up with an equation that might find a commonality in the murders. While they waited for the computer to process the data, Charlie turned to Colby.

"So... now that you've got your Ph. D.... what do you plan to do? Teach?"

"Well... I was thinking of maybe doing another doctorate," Colby replied, and Charlie's heart clenched at the thought of more of this dance, this no-man's land between friends and lovers, between wanting and having.

"Really?" he asked, injecting his voice with enthusiasm, because a Colby under his tutelage (and off-limits) was better than no Colby at all. "You sure you want a few more years of minionhood?"

Colby chuckled. "Actually... I was thinking of working with Professor Sayers in computer science. So I'd still be a student, just not yours." His voice was layered with meaning, with invitation, and Charlie felt his mouth go dry.

"Well, leaving aside the fact that you're deserting math for computers, of all things, I would hope that my favourite former student will still have time for the odd collaboration."

"I remain at your service, Professor Eppes. In whatever capacity you'd like me to." And shit, when Colby laced his already sinfully rich voice with innuendo, what was a guy supposed to do?

Charlie leaned a little closer to Colby, lips parted and eyes dark with invitation. He didn't know who moved first, but then Colby's lips were on his, warm and soft and better than any of Charlie's fantasies.

Eventually, though, they had to give in to the demands of their bodies, and they parted, gasping for breath.

"Shit, shit, shit, that wasn't supposed to happen," Colby muttered, and Charlie felt a vice close around his heart.

"It wasn't?" he said, proud of how much his voice was *not* shaking.

"Well, it was, just maybe five months after I started working under Dr. Sayers, flirted with you a little bit before working up the nerve to ask you out." Colby's voice was a little breathless, and his body inched closer to Charlie's as he spoke.

"As long as it was supposed to happen eventually," Charlie said, feeling the vice ease a little at Colby's nod.

"And... this wasn't an untwinnable event?" Charlie asked. He hated to sound so unsure, but he still wasn't very good at non-math things and this was too important- Colby was too important- to leave any room for doubt.

"Oh, Professor Eppes," Colby said, a wicked grin playing around the edges of his mouth, "you of all people should know that any hypothesis requires extensive testing."

"Really?" Charlie said, a grin of his own on his face now.

"In fact, I'd recommend that, in order to obtain the best data, we should conduct a number of experiments. Maybe even introduce some variety. Like, say, dinner at my place tomorrow?"

"Anything for science, Dr. Granger. And... how long do you think it will take to achieve a suitable result?"

"I don't know about you, Professor, but I estimate it taking a very long time. Maybe even the rest of our lives."

Charlie smiled. "That sounds absolutely perfect to me." And he pulled Colby down for another kiss.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written and posted on LJ in 2009, and has been transferred here for archive purposes.
> 
> Original Notes and Comments:
> 
> *shakes head at self* We had a month for this ficathon... and when did I do the majority of the writing? Why, the day the darn thing was due, of course. That said, I’m quite happy with how it turned out, despite the lack of smut. Also, I had fun putting canon lines in other people’s mouth. And an unholy amount of amusement with Colby now having the name ‘Whiz Kid’ *g*
> 
> Geeky!Colby! Who could resist that! Credit goes to spikedluv and umbralillium for inspiring the bunny, and mustangcandi for telling me just enough about grad school in the US that I could BS my way through. Any remaining errors are mine, not hers. Thanks, y’all! 
> 
> So... like I said, I really loved the idea of Colby at CalSci, studying under Charlie while simultaneously crushing on him. At the same time, I didn’t want him to be a white male version of Amita, so I ended up with a blend of both. For anyone who’s curious, in this verse, Amita is a programmer who joined up with the Army after 9/11. 
> 
> Another thing that was super-important to me was that Colby left his own mark on Charlie- I think that because of a combination of his own proactive nature and the fact that he’s just got more common sense, he tends to pull Charlie out of the clouds a lot more than Amita ever did- Colby was a leader in some hairy situations and spent time in the real world, so that gives him a groundedness that is good for Charlie, both on a professional and a personal level.
> 
> Oh, and Dwayne Carter is dead. Good riddance. In my head he succumbed to his injuries after pulling Colby out of that Humvee. A better fate than he deserved, and he isn’t around to pull Colby into that Chinese mess, either. 
> 
> Finally... is it bad that I now have more bunnies in this verse? Including one where Charlie and Colby christen Colby’s new desk at Harvard? *headdesks*
> 
> Comments and kudos are, as always, appreciated. Come find me at [Dreamwidth](http://swingandswirl.dreamwidth.org) if you want to chat!


End file.
